Hi, i would like some advise on the best stucture for the following URL example, this would be for article detail page.
sitename/articles/category/article-title
or
sitename/articles/article-title
so is it more SEO to not display the category in the URL?
Regards
Daniel
Fair point Stevie, I really just wanted to make sure it was NOT a big deal, as its still in development stage, so trying to get everything right first time 
Thanks for your help, I am sure your be hearing more from me in the near future.
Daniel
To be honest, I think you’re worrying too much about it. Find a URL structure that works for you in terms of navigation and maintenance, and stick with it. Google really doesn’t care about your URL structure at all. Sure, if a particular word appears in the URL, that might help a tiny bit, but it’s more important to make sure you have complete and consistent site navigation so that spiders can find every page on your site and understand how they relate to each other. If you’re spending lots of time worrying about the minutiae of URL structure, that’s time that you aren’t spending on writing quality articles, improving your code, building links and doing all the other things that can really make a difference.
Thanks Stevie D,
yes the site has an Index page, and yes I plan to post a lot of articles.
Currently my URls are as follows,
Article land page = sitename/articles/
Article category page = sitename/articles/category/dog-breeds/
Article deatil page = sitename/dog-article/
I was looking at sitepoints own url struture for articles and it uses the same system!, I am really not sure if the article detail page should contain the cateogry/dog-breeds/ ?
Regards
Daniel
In terms of SEO, it is unlikely to make a huge difference. Putting the category in there might give you a tiny boost by having the extra word in the URL. Assuming you’ll have an index page at sitename/articles/category/, this probably will help your search rankings, because it provides spiders with an easier way to navigate your site, and helps to chunk the information into related sections so they can understand how the site fits together.
In terms of usability, there are pros and cons. On the one hand, the extra level of navigation may help people, because again it gives them an easy route to find related articles. On the other hand, having the longer URL means more chance of mistakes when people type it in.
Also think about it from the point of view of your site maintenance. Will it be easier for you to keep a handle on if the articles are subdivided by category or all in the same place?
The answer will at least partly depend on how big you intend the site to get. If you’re thinking of having maybe a dozen articles, that subdivision almost certainly won’t be necessary. If you’re looking at having a couple of hundred, it will very likely be helpful.